If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Focus on past tenses

I have been working on grammar exercises in the last few hours. Now I have got some questions which you can hopefully help me with:

1) I booked an appointment for 1.30 pm on Wednesday.
2) In fact, I spent over six hours in the hairdresser's altogether and didn't arrive home until well after 8'o clock.

I would go for "was booking and was spending" but the correction says what I wrote above. Why? In the second sentence we are dealing with a certain amount of time, don't we?
In sentence one I would say we talk about a specific event in the past. My grammar book tells me to use past progressive in such situations.

Can you give me a more proper explanation please? I am unsure about the difference in meaning with simple past and past progressive.

3.1) We would like to have stayed longer.
3.2) We would have liked to stay longer.
3.3) We would have liked to have stayed longer.

I am completely confused about the difference in meaning, as this is nothing I have ever worked on before. They all express preferences in the past, but which sentence fits which past tense and why?

Re: Focus on past tenses

Please ask different questions in separate threads, othewise the responses can become quite confusing. I have tackled one of your questions.

3.1) We would like to have stayed longer.a. We regret now that we did not stay longer on the past occasion the speaker is talking about.b. We regret now that we cannot stay longer now.
3.2) We would have liked to stay longer.a. On that past occasion, we regretted that we could not stay longer.b. We regret now that we cannot stay longer now.
3.3) We would have liked to have stayed longer.a. On a past occasion, we regretted that we had been unable to stay longer on a precious occasion.
b. On that past occasion, we regretted that we could not stay longer.
c. We regret now that we cannot stay longer now.

Confused?

The problem is that native speakers frequently use a form that is technically 'incorrect'. In my paraphrases above, the 'a' version is the 'correct' one., but you will hear people using the utterances with the 'b' and 'c' meanings. The message intended will usually be clear from the context.

If you want to use the 'correct' form, remember that (very roughly):

we would like = we wish - present timewe would have liked = we wished - past timeto stay = at the same time as, or after, the wishto have stayed = before the wish.

Re: Focus on past tenses

1) I booked an appointment for 1.30 pm on Wednesday.
2) In fact, I spent over six hours in the hairdresser's altogether and didn't arrive home until well after 8'o clock.

I would go for "was booking and was spending" but the correction says what I wrote above. Why? In the second sentence we are dealing with a certain amount of time, don't we?
In sentence one I would say we talk about a specific event in the past. My grammar book tells me to use past progressive in such situations.

The past progressive would suggest that the actions weren't finished. Your grammar books probably means situations where the action/state described by the verb was ongoing at that time being referenced.

Re: Focus on past tenses

Originally Posted by fivejedjon

Please ask different questions in separate threads, othewise the responses can become quite confusing. I have tackled one of your questions.Confused?

The problem is that native speakers frequently use a form that is technically 'incorrect'. In my paraphrases above, the 'a' version is the 'correct' one., but you will hear people using the utterances with the 'b' and 'c' meanings. The message intended will usually be clear from the context.

If you want to use the 'correct' form, remember that (very roughly):

we would like = we wish - present timewe would have liked = we wished - past timeto stay = at the same time as, or after, the wishto have stayed = before the wish.

Hello, 5jj.

I'd like to ask a question regarding the following sentence: 3.2) We would have liked to stay longer.

Do people have to add an if clause when using the sentence quoted, as in If we had been there that very day, we would have liked to stay longer?

If this is the case, then is seems the meanings of sentence 3.1 and 3.2 are not substantially different.